1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ophthalmologic imaging apparatuses, and more particularly, to an ophthalmologic imaging apparatus for obtaining consecutive still images having small aberrations by pulse light emission.
2. Description of the Related Art
Only eyes include blood vessels which can be directly viewed without any surgical operations in a body. If a white blood cell can be observed in a blood flow, it helps to find general disorders such as diabetes. Since the size of a white blood cell is about 10 μm, however, it is difficult for current retina cameras to measure it. It is also very difficult to take moving images of a blood flow because the amount of light which can be allowed to be incident on an eye is restricted and the line of sight is not stable.
The following technologies have been disclosed by the assignee of present application. An eye-characteristic measurement apparatus which compensates for aberrations of an eye under measurement by a compensation optical section and measures precisely a minute aberration remaining after compensation is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-113405, No. 2004-159779, and No. 2004-159784. A retina observation apparatus which compensates a light beam reflected by an eye under measurement in order to improve retina-image quality and obtains an optimal image is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-329282. A retina-image observation apparatus which detects a displacement of an eye under measurement and moves a wavefront compensation device according to the detected shift position to compensate the wavefront is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-006362.
In a conventional optical apparatus, for example, a light source of continuous wave (CW) oscillation is used to illuminate a retina, which is continuous illumination. As a result, illumination is applied even for periods other than exposure periods. Since a load is imposed on a patient, long imaging is impossible in some cases. In addition, with an apparatus which uses adaptive optics, since an exposure period is generally long, a moving object causes a blurred image. Further, since an image is also taken in a case when aberrations are not compensated for, a separate process for classifying images is required to obtain successful images.